Peter Odemwingie responds to Matheus Pereira controversy at West Brom
Peter Odemwingie has responded to being likened to Matheus Pereira as the West Brom attacker aims to quit The Hawthorns this summer.
On Monday, the 25-year-old Brazilian took to Twitter to confirm his desire to move on this summer after receiving a life-changing offer from another club.
Pereira also took offence to manager Valerien Ismael saying the playmaker “is not committed to the Championship and not committed to” the Baggies [Sky Sports].
In recent years, Albion fans have seen a number of their heroes quit The Hawthorns on bad terms and none are more infamous than Odemwingie’s exit.
Pereira’s situation has been compared to Odemwingie’s, leading the ex-West Brom striker to distance himself from it on social media and wish his best to Pereira and the club.
“You don’t know even half my story. Love my Baggies too, regardless. It’s all good. Boing boing,” said the former Nigeria striker via his personal Twitter account.
“Good luck to all involved in the new situation.”
He then added: “Un poco complicado”. In English, this means: “A little complicated.”
What to do with a problem like Pereira
West Brom have been left with a very awkward situation to deal with after Pereira’s public statement on Monday.
Albion are yet to spend a transfer fee on a new signing this summer with just three new players arriving either on loan or as free agents.
It is fairly clear that Ismael cannot sign new players for a fee until players are sold and none are more valuable at The Hawthorns than Pereira after the brilliant season he had in the Premier League last term.
Pereira has done enough to show that he’s good enough to stay in the top-flight and most Albion fans would be pleased for the Brazilian to move on.
However, there is a way to go about things and to us, it seems as though Pereira has completely misunderstood what Ismael told the media about him at the weekend.
Ismael was saying that Pereira isn’t committed to the club and isn’t committed to the Championship. Is that wrong? Absolutely not.
Pereira himself is saying he wants to leave, therefore he’s not committed to the Baggies and not committed to helping the club get out of the second-tier.
Pereira seems to have taken offence to those words because he’s been made to feel as though he isn’t trying hard enough in training or not showing that he’s fully focused on playing football.
That’s just wrong.
Pereira’s made a mess of this and he’s probably made himself harder to sell.
Will clubs want a player who’s fallen afoul of management at two clubs? Will they want to meet West Brom’s fair demands for him?
No, they won’t.
Everyone is a loser in this situation unless someone can sign him on the cheap.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips feels the Albion have one major advantage in their bid to sign this new player.
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